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Cloudflare’s largest ever DDoS attack highlights critical vulnerabilities in internet infrastructure

Cloudflare’s mitigation of the record-breaking 7.3 Tbps DDoS attack reveals escalating threats to hosting providers and critical internet infrastructure, underscoring urgent cybersecurity challenges.

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By MoneyOval Bureau

3 min read

Cloudflare

In mid-May 2025, Cloudflare successfully blocked the largest distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack ever recorded, which peaked at 7.3 terabits per second (Tbps). This assault targeted an unnamed hosting provider, flooding a single IP address with an astonishing 37.4 terabytes of data in just 45 seconds.

To put this into perspective, the volume equates roughly to streaming 9,350 high-definition movies or transferring over 12.5 million photos within less than a minute. This attack surpassed Cloudflare’s previous records, including a 6.5 Tbps flood in April and a 5.6 Tbps Mirai-variant attack earlier in the year.

Multi-vector and global nature of the attack

The attack employed a sophisticated multi-vector approach, dominated by UDP floods, which accounted for 99.996% of the traffic. Additional vectors included QOTD reflection, Echo reflection, NTP amplification, Mirai UDP floods, Portmap floods, and RIPv1 amplification attacks. This combination exploited legacy protocols and poorly configured services to amplify and evade defenses.

Traffic originated from over 122,000 unique source IP addresses across 5,433 autonomous systems spanning 161 countries. The largest sources of attack traffic were Brazil and Vietnam, contributing roughly one-quarter each, followed by Taiwan, China, Indonesia, Ukraine, Ecuador, Thailand, the United States, and Saudi Arabia.

The attack targeted an average of 21,925 destination ports per second, peaking at 34,517 ports, effectively overwhelming the victim’s network defenses.

Did you know?
The 37.4 terabytes of data delivered in 45 seconds during the attack is roughly equivalent to downloading the entire contents of the Library of Congress multiple times over at once, illustrating the staggering volume of modern cyber assaults.

Hosting providers and critical infrastructure as prime targets

Cloudflare’s Omer Yoachimik emphasized that hosting providers and critical internet infrastructure are increasingly attractive targets for such hyper-volumetric DDoS attacks. The scale and complexity of this latest assault highlight systemic vulnerabilities in the backbone of the internet.

As these providers support countless online services and applications, successful attacks can disrupt vast swathes of digital activity, with cascading effects on businesses and end users.

Automation and resilience in defense mechanisms

Despite the attack’s unprecedented magnitude, Cloudflare’s automated defense systems, including its Magic Transit service, mitigated the assault without human intervention or service degradation. The company’s extensive anycast network, spanning 477 data centers globally, dispersed and absorbed the traffic using real-time fingerprinting and intelligence-sharing technologies.

This autonomous response points out the importance of advanced, scalable defense architectures in protecting modern internet infrastructure.

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Emerging botnet threats and ongoing risks

Security researchers have linked recent DDoS campaigns to botnets like RapperBot, which exploit vulnerabilities in routers, network-attached storage devices, and video recorders. Active since 2022, RapperBot uses encrypted command-and-control channels and targets diverse industries, including public management, social security, manufacturing, and financial services.

The growing sophistication and scale of such botnets amplify the threat landscape, demanding continuous innovation in cybersecurity defenses.

Future Roadmap

The record-setting 7.3 Tbps DDoS attack mitigated by Cloudflare signals an urgent need to address deep-rooted vulnerabilities in internet infrastructure. As attackers leverage vast, globally distributed botnets and multi-vector tactics, the cybersecurity community must prioritize scalable, automated defenses and proactive threat intelligence sharing.

Strengthening the security posture of hosting providers and critical infrastructure is imperative to safeguard the digital economy and maintain trust in online services amid an evolving threat landscape.

What is the most critical priority for defending against record-breaking DDoS attacks?

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